


The Hour of the Wolf

by dramatic owl (snarky_panda)



Category: Quantum Leap
Genre: Angst, Anxiety, Gen, Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-09-30 23:19:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17233055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarky_panda/pseuds/dramatic%20owl
Summary: That eerie hour between when night ended and dawn began was the worst.





	The Hour of the Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the genprompt_bingo prompt: The Early Hours before Dawn.

It had been at least four years since Donna had slept through an entire night. Living and working in an underground laboratory could mess up anyone’s circadian rhythm, even with the use of special sunlight lamps, but the crazy sporadic schedule made it worse. When she could, she went up topside to get air and sunlight, but often it just wasn’t possible to take time to do that, with Sam’s leaps getting more and more difficult and the constant need to scramble to find solutions to new problems.

After Sam came home then leaped out again it grew worse. It wasn’t just the lack of a full night’s sleep; it was the time of the night that she always happened to pop wide awake now that was the problem. That eerie hour before the break of dawn.

Sometimes they were all already up at that hour anyway, dealing with the arrival of a leapee in the waiting room, running potential scenarios of what Sam was supposed to do in that leap. Those times were far easier for her to cope with, since she was too busy to dwell on her own discomfort. It was the other times, when she woke after being sound asleep, and always at that time of the early morning. For a while she handled it by remaining in bed, hoping for sleep to return. Apprehension and dread drove her to repetitively sit up then lie back down, toss and turn, with no relief. Eventually she gave up even trying and began her new routine of dressing, going up topside, and sitting on one of the nearby large rock formations in the cold until the anxiety that had wrapped itself around her heart dissipated with the light of dawn.

Donna didn’t have to live underground at Project Quantum Leap, but she’d chosen to. She couldn’t bear to live alone in the home that she and her husband had built together. As more time passed and Sam continued to leap through time without any sign of stopping, she was convinced that he would not be coming home again ever. She stopped at the house regularly to keep up the maintenance, just in case there was ever a time when she could sell it, though that was unlikely. But she wouldn’t sleep there.

Christmas was just a week away when, for the first time, Al Calavicci, their partner on the project and Sam's best friend, joined her topside during that terrible hour. The band around his wrist that kept him in communication with Ziggy lit his way as he approached. He was carrying two cups, one of which he handed to her as he took a seat beside her on the large flat rock.

“Black, two sugars.”

“Thanks, Al. How did you know?”

“I saw you in the hallway again and decided to join you up here. You have a habit of getting up at this hour.”

“So do you, apparently.”

“Unfortunately.”

He drew a cigar out of his pocket and gestured to it. She nodded that it was okay, and he unwrapped it and lit up.

“The hour of the wolf. When all the demons come out.”

“I thought I was just anxious.” She sipped at her coffee, relishing the feeling of it warming her insides. “Mmm, thanks again for this.”

“My pleasure.”

“It’s easier when we’re already busy with a leap at this hour,” she said wistfully. “I’m up anyway, so I might as well be working. But when I’m not already occupied, when I’m just waking up at this time – I mean, this could be a good time to work on the retrieval program, and I should be working on it, but I’m so nervous I can’t focus.”

“You’ve been working really hard on it, and you’ve made a lot of progress.”

“Not enough.”

Donna left unsaid that she thought Sam would not be coming home, that he too was a variable in the equation for the retrieval program’s success, and that the program would never work as long as he wanted to keep leaping. 

“This is tougher on you than any of us. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

His voice was kind and she took a large swallow of coffee to stop a lump from forming in her throat.

“Wasn’t there a movie called _Hour of the Wolf_?” she asked, changing the subject abruptly. She knew that there was, but talking about Sam and the project and the retrieval program was agitating her.

“Ingmar Bergman. Weird movie. Ever see it?”

“I always got the impression that his movies would be too heavy for me so I never tried them out.”

“You can always rent.”

“At this point I think I need to stick to light comedies if I’m going to watch movies.”

They sipped their coffee and talked until sunrise, when Ziggy alerted them that Sam had leaped into a new time and place.

Donna continued to wake at that awful hour, and each time Al joined her. Sometimes they ran into each other underground, both on their way up. At other times their schedules were slightly off and they met topside. Sitting on the rock talking until the sun was up became their new routine. They brought hot cups of coffee up with them, and sometimes pastries if one of them had managed to get to the bakery in town the previous day. Sometimes they went for a short drive along the dark and empty desert highway, just for a change and a little bit of distance from the project.

“Al, you don’t have to keep coming out here every night,” Donna said one day, though she didn’t really mean it. She enjoyed his company, and his presence and friendship helped take the edge off her apprehension and loneliness in those times. “I don’t want you giving up a full night’s sleep every night because of me.”

She was relieved when he waved her off and said that he was happy to do it, that he enjoyed her company.

“It’s not like I’m giving up sleep, anyway. I’m already up when you are, and I’m not gonna sleep through the night ever again until Sam is home.”

Donna still didn’t tell him that she thought Sam wouldn’t be coming home again and that they’d be doing this every night from now on. She just smiled and said, “That makes two of us.” 


End file.
